It is well known that many tasks such as: the construction of driveways, roadways, and asphalt surfaces; the back filling of retaining walls; and the distribution of aggregate, mulch, soil and the like, can be extremely labor intensive. For example, delivery of aggregate to a roadway construction site typically involves: (i) loading a dump truck at an aggregate storage facility, (ii) transporting the aggregate to the construction site, (iii) dumping the aggregate in a mound, (iv) manually filling a wheelbarrow, (v) wheeling the aggregate to a selected location, and (iv) dumping the wheelbarrow load at that location. Each of these steps involves a great deal of time and labor. Furthermore, at each of these steps material may be spilled, wasted or otherwise strewn about the construction site. This waste results in an unsightly and potentially environmentally hazardous construction site and can create a potential road hazard if gravel material is picked up by the tires of passing vehicles and thrown into the air. This picked-up material can injure unprotected pedestrians or damage property such as the windshields of passing vehicles.
To address the inefficiencies inherent in these steps, a number of mobile placers have been designed. Certain of these known mobile placers include a placer or placing conveyor pivotally attached to the main body of the vehicle. Placing conveyors generally include a conveyor belt driven around a number of rollers and function to convey and direct material from a material source to a worksite.
Certain known placer conveyors use a placer conveyor that is pivotally attached to the main body of the vehicle. Typically, the mechanism for attaching the placer conveyor to the main body includes a vertical pivoting axis located near the in-feed end of the placer conveyor. With this configuration, the placer conveyor can swing side-to-side about the vertical axis. This allows the operator to dispense material in a variety of different directions or angles relative to the vehicle.
Different driving mechanisms have been developed to accomplish side-to-side pivoting of a placer conveyor relative to the vehicle body. In one example, a flange is provided around the vertical pivoting axis and one or more hydraulic piston-cylinder apparatuses are coupled to a peripheral portion of the flange. As the cylinder extends and contracts, the placer conveyor is pivoted about the vertical axis. In another example, a sprocket is provided about the vertical axis and is driven by a chain. However, the accuracy of the side-to-side pivoting motion of the placer conveyors using these drive systems is not sufficient to precisely direct material to a specific location on a worksite.
It would be advantageous to provide a system, apparatus and/or method that addresses these limitations and simplifies the process of constructing and/or maintaining a roadway or distributing material around a construction site.